NEWS ARCHIVE

Jean Todt does not always come across as a man with much affection but he obviously feels strongly enough about Michael Schumacher that he is willing to wait until next Spring to see if Michael will agree to a new contract for 2007 and 2008. In normal circumstances Todt would have tied up his 2007 drivers already.

The International Speedway Corporation and its rival Speedway Motorsports have announced that they are buying the merchandising company Action Performance for $245m. Action Performance holds many of the licences for merchandise related to the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

There was a strange press release this evening sent out by Formula One Management and signed by Bernie Ecclestone. The message, however, was not one that seemed to ring true with Ecclestone's views in recent months.

Michael Schumacher and Ferrari could stop all the rumours about the multiple World Champion retiring at the end of 2006 by announcing a new deal for Schumacher for 2007 or by admitting that Michael is quitting.

The Chinese government has ratified the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, formalising the country's support for the anti-smoking treaty and obligating the Chinese to ban tobacco sponsorship.

It was a very full weekend for motorsport with all the major series in action apart from Formula 1. In Germany Sebastien Loeb won his eighth victory of the year to move close to a second consecutive World Championship for Citroen.

The Renault F1 team sent a car to Moscow at the weekend and drivers Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella made demonstration runs on a street track laid out on Moskvoretskaya street and across the Moskvoretsky bridge.

It might seem unlikely that Formula 1 could be saved from itself by a 40-something-year-old American but stories leaking out that Robin Saunders, once the golden girl of city finance, could be making a comeback with a $1.5bn plan to buy control of Formula One from the three banks involved.

It was a busy week of testing at Monza where all the Formula 1 teams were in action in preparation for the Italian Grand Prix. Juan Pablo Montoya set the fastest time with a best lap of 1m19.813s after two days of running, during which he completed 170 laps of the track.

The High Court in London is currently quiet, with most of the justices away on their summer recess. At this time of year the courts deal only with interim hearings, which can result in interim orders pending the resolution of a legal action.

It is worth noting that the new A1 Team Switzerland appears to be being run by Care Racing Developments, which is the racing operation run by sportscar racer Frederic Dor from his premises at Gilly, near Nyon in Switzerland.

Red Bull has been a big name in Formula 1 circles for 10 years now but one aim it has always had was to bring a top level American driver into the sport, to help its invasion of the United States drinks markets and specifically the youth market.

Williams has taken on a new chief designer in Jorg Zander, a 41-year-old German who cut his teeth in motorsport at Toyota. In recent years Zander has been in charge of mechanics and transmission at BAR.

The Formula 1 team bosses met in Turkey to try to work out what to do about qualifying next year and the opinions seem to be somewhat split, unusual in this age of detente, although the general feeling now appears to be to maintain the status quo with one or two modifications.

Usually reliable sources are now telling us that Kimi Raikkonen will definitely be moving to Ferrari in 2007, which clearly upsets the applecart of the Formula 1 driver market, unless we are to believe that Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher will agree to be in the same team together.

There are reports in Germany this morning that Kimi Raikkonen has signed an option to join Ferrari in 2007. This option is almost certainly dependent on whether or not Michael Schumacher is still with the team or whether the German retires or moves to another F1 operation.

Behind the rumours of Michael Schumacher joining McLaren there appear to be negotiations for the German to stay on for probably two more years with Scuderia Ferrari. Schumacher's current contract with Ferrari runs out at the end of 2006.

Clearly aware that he has a credibility problem in F1 circles, Jordan team owner Alex Shnaider is trying again to sound like a serious Formula 1 team owner with Bernie Ecclestone's official website Formula 1.com running an interview, trying to explain his strategy in Formula 1.

Research into the behind the scenes activity in and around Formula 1 has revealed some interesting new facts, not least that a company called Formula One Promotions and Administration Ltd is not only applying for the European trademarks of GP1 but is also the holder of the GP2 trademark.

The Rotterdam newspaper Het Algmene Dagblad this morning reported that a Dutch group is looking to buy a share of the Minardi team from Paul Stoddart. There were, it seems, meetings in Turkey to this end which included Stoddart and Bernie Ecclestone.

The German press has been known to get a little excited over the years about rumours concerning Michael Schumacher but the revelations that the seven-time World Champion has been talking to McLaren are interesting and pose a number of questions.

Rick Weidinger's A1 Team USA is still to announce its full plans for the coming season but the team has now listed three drivers and it is interesting to note that all three of them are Red Bull drivers.

British American Racing boss Nick Fry has given Anthony Davidson a very clear message by saying that "if Anthony feels he cannot wait for the final decision over Jenson, then he is free to secure a race drive elsewhere".

Michael Schumacher is widely accepted as being the greatest driver of his era, although his complete domination of F1 statistics is sometimes mistaken for him being the greatest racing driver of all time.

With two laps to go before the end of the Turkish Grand Prix, things were looking as good as they get for McLaren. It was, at that moment, a question of maximum points. Eighteen of them. Amazingly, only one team has scored maximum points at a race this year.

Red Bull has a problem. The Austrian drinks firm has been sponsoring a young driver programme for the last few years and is keen to be seen to be backing young talent as this is apparently something which appeals to its young customers.

The Turkish Grand Prix was a great success, with a huge crowd, despite the high costs for spectators, and a big boost for the country's tourist trade. Profiteering from the race did not seem to be too bad in Istanbul, unlike some of the other venues were all prices are hiked dramatically when the F1 circus comes to town.

There remains plenty of talk in F1 circles about Jenson Button and the tug-of-love between Williams and BAR for his services next season. Nothing seems to be happening, which is odd given that it is in the interest of everyone that the matter be sorted out as quickly as possible.

Given the intensity of the tyre war this year, it is not entirely surprising that Michelin is less than happy with the news that Sauber driver Felipe Massa will be testing at Monza this week for the Ferrari team.

Kimi Raikkonen gave notice that he is still the man to be feared as he set the fastest time in qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix. The Finn put his McLaren on pole, beating the two Renaults of Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso, although the biggest challenge should have come from Jenson Button.

Takuma Sato has been dumped to the back of the grid for getting in the way of Mark Webber in qualifying on Saturday in Istanbul. The BAR-Honda driver imposed the penalty after Sato cost the Australian around three-tenths of a second.

Kimi Raikkonen was half a second faster than the rest of the field in the final practice session for the Turkish Grand Prix on Saturday morning. The Finn confirmed that McLaren is still well ahead of the game after F1's midseason break.

The Kurdish rebel group PKK, which is fighting for autonomy in an area of south-eastern Turkey, has used the Grand Prix weekend in Istanbul to announce that it is declaring a one-month ceasefire in its campaign to disrupt tourism in the country.

McLaren remained on top of the Formula 1 pile in the first practice session in Istanbul with test driver Pedro de la Rosa setting the fastest time of the session, well clear of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen, who knows that he must score as many points as possible in Turkey to maintain a World Championship challenge.

It is anticipated that BAR Honda will confirm the signing of Rubens Barrichello within the next few days. It is anticipated that the team will announce that the Brazilian has joined the team for the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

The long-awaited announcement that Williams will use Cosworth engines in 2006 is no surprise, just as an announcement that the team will run Toyota engines in 2007 and beyond will surprise no-one in F1 circles.

Sebastien Bourdais wants his name in the frame in Formula 1 and the best way he can achieve that is to win in the United States. The current Champ Car champion is doing exactly that and at the weekend won his fourth victory of the season in Denver.

Formula One Promotions and Administration has applied for the pan-European trademark rights to the name GP1 covering 16 categories including organising and staging sports events, broadcasting, sportswear and timing equipment.

Reports from the Associated Press suggest that it is not a foregone conclusion that there will be a United States Grand Prix in 2006. The speedway made a huge investment to get an F1 race and has to decide whether it is going to write this off and give up on F1.

Luis Diaz has been confirmed as the lead driver of A1 Grand Prix Team Mexico. The 27-year-old is current racing for Chip Ganassi in GrandAm, although he raced in Toyota Atlantic before moving to GrandAm.

Ferrari last month tested a prototype V8 engine, which had major vibration problems, but this week the team ran its first real V8 engine, which was given its debut in the hands of Marc Gene, who completed 38 laps around Fiorano in the first shakedown test.

In a recent press conference the organisers of the planned South African Grand Prix made one very interesting remark, noting that if a race is to go ahead it will have to convince the government to "allow them to advertise" tobacco.

The recent decision by Jurgen Schrempp is to stand down as DaimlerChrysler chairman, three years ahead of schedule, have had some destabilising influences on the Stuttgart company, not least because the chief executive of Mercedes-Benz Eckhard Cordes appears to have decided to follow Schrempp out of the door.

For most of this year there have been stories coming out of Romania about plans to create a racing circuit in the downtown area of Bucharest, around the famous Parliament Palace, built by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu before he overthrown in 1989.

The International Rugby Board has just announced that it is to invest $53m in the sport to improve the competitiveness of rugby worldwide. The investment is part of the IRB's Strategic Plan to develop the game.

Toyota may be withdrawing from the Indy Racing League and cutting its longtime support for the Formula Atlantic Championship but it will be continuing to support the Long Beach Grand Prix, which it has sponsored since 1980.

Valentino Rossi is a very promotable young man. At 26 he is top of the world in motorcycle racing, having won four consecutive 500cc/MotoGP titles. He is leading this year's championship in dominant fashion and has just signed to ride for Yamaha again in 2006.

Fifteen teams turned up for the first collective test for the new A1 Grand Prix series at Silverstone with A1 Team Great Britain setting the pace thanks to the efforts of Robbie Kerr, who set the pace with a lap of the national circuit of 48.888s.

Two people were killed last night when a bomb exploded in Pendik, a town to the east of Istanbul, about seven miles from the new Formula 1 circuit. The blast followed the recent trend of bombs in the country, being hidden in a garbage bin.

Ferrari's need for cash in Formula 1 could be answered if parent company Fiat could sell more cars and to this end the embattled Italian car company has announced plans to launch 20 new models in the next three years in order to turn the company around.

Rubens Barrichello had a multi-million dollar contract with Ferrari for 2006 and had chosen to give it up. It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that the only reason for the 33-year-old Brazilian to do that is because he has a better deal somewhere.

Red Bull Racing has decided that Christian Klien will be given the chance to race for the team again in Turkey and at Monza. Tonio Liuzzi will continue his apprenticeship as the team's third driver and is now expected to take over the second car in Belgium.

Officially Eckhard Cordes is still the boss of Mercedes-Benz, but sources in Germany indicate that as soon as it became clear that Jurgen Schrempp, the boss of Mercedes's parent DaimlerChrysler, was going to be departing the business, Cordes made his feeling known to the company's supervisory board.

Formula 1 folk do not discuss strategy much these days because it is almost impossible to know what to expect on a Sunday until we have seen a few laps of the race and with a track like the Hungaroring things are much more complicated.

According to reports in the British press Ferrari is going to try to dodge the European tobacco ban, using the argument that the Italian Grand Prix is a national event rather than a cross-border competition.

There are ructions going on with the management at DaimlerChrysler following the news that chairman Jurgen Schrempp is to stand down. German newspapers are reporting that Schrempp will be followed out of the door by Mercedes-Benz chairman Eckhard Cordes